{"id":629419,"date":"2026-04-25T06:14:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T06:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/629419\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T06:14:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T06:14:23","slug":"cotton-industry-alert-but-not-alarmed-by-increasing-numbers-of-bicoloured-weevils-in-nt-crops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/629419\/","title":{"rendered":"Cotton industry ‘alert but not alarmed’ by increasing numbers of bicoloured weevils in NT crops"},"content":{"rendered":"

A native insect appears to have developed a taste for cotton plants in the Northern Territory, with numbers of bicoloured weevils increasing significantly in recent years.<\/p>\n

NT Department of Agriculture entomologist Simon Ong said the weevils were first observed in 2021, feeding on pollen in flowers of commercial cotton crops in the Douglas Daly region.<\/p>\n

“Their numbers have increased exponentially with each season since, and they’ve also been turning up earlier in the season,” Mr Ong said.<\/a><\/p>\n

“It’s becoming quite an impactful pest for us.”\"Man<\/p>\n

Simon Ong presents his research at a Douglas Daly field day. (ABC Rural: Sam Parry)<\/p>\n

Mr Ong said it had been hard to quantify what impact the weevils were having on cotton yields, but he suspected it would be significant.<\/p>\n

“While having hundreds of weevils pouring out of a flower is alarming to look at, the real damage is done when the females lay their eggs, and the larvae develop in the boll, which causes the plant to shed it.”<\/p>\n

He said the weevils had also been found in cotton crops in Queensland and in Western Australia’s Ord Irrigation Scheme<\/a>, but not in the vast numbers observed in the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n

Mr Ong said bicoloured weevils were native to Australia and should not be confused with the exotic cotton boll weevil from the Americas.<\/p>\n

\"Cotton<\/p>\n

A cotton trial at the Douglas Daly Research Farm, NT. (ABC Rural: Sam Parry)<\/p>\n

‘Alert but not alarmed’, says Cotton Australia<\/p>\n

Cotton Australia’s chief executive, Adam Kay, said NT growers had reported the weevils “coming in waves”.<\/p>\n

“They can cause damage to the flower and developing boll, so certainly a concern,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The growers are now very aware of them and, in some cases, they know they can control them when they control [spray for] other pests.<\/p>\n

“Our growers are being alert but not alarmed at this stage.”\"Line<\/p>\n

NT cotton ready to be processed at the new gin near Katherine. (ABC Rural: Matt Brann)<\/p>\n

Mr Kay said in the Northern Territory, weevil numbers on some farms were very small, but in some areas they had “exploded”.<\/p>\n

He said the NT government’s research was helping the industry understand the life-cycle and biology of the pest and, with good farm hygiene, he felt farmers would be able to get on top of the issue.<\/p>\n

At the moment, there are no pesticides specifically registered for the control of bicoloured weevils in cotton.<\/p>\n

The NT Department of Agriculture and Fisheries said it was investigating options for future control.<\/p>\n

\"Hand<\/p>\n

Growers are being urged to check the health of their cotton. (ABC Rural: Sam Parry)<\/p>\n

Mr Ong said the best thing growers could do right now was “maintain good field hygiene between seasons”.<\/p>\n

“What we have been able to see is that in ratoon cotton that’s been left growing in the field between seasons, that can support populations of weevils,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If there’s a single plant, they [weevils] will already be sitting on it and breeding before you’ve even planted, and will get straight into your crop.”<\/p>\n

He said the weevil was known to feed on native hibiscus and gossypium species.<\/p>\n

There are about 6,000 hectares of cotton planted in the Northern Territory this season, down from around 10,000 hectares last year.<\/p>\n

Harvest is due to begin in late May.<\/p>\n

Watch ABC TV’s Landline at 12:30pm on Sunday or on ABC iview<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A native insect appears to have developed a taste for cotton plants in the Northern Territory, with numbers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,304979,110955,111195,25273,304980,134,93960,80982,8867,89780,337,304981,304978],"class_list":["post-629419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bicoloured-weevil","tag-cotton","tag-cotton-plant","tag-damage","tag-douglas-daly","tag-entertainment","tag-field-day","tag-insect","tag-northern-territory","tag-pest","tag-research","tag-simon-ong","tag-weevil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}